Saginaw Bay breaks into list of 100 Best Bass Lakes in America

Steve Griffin

Updated 7:15 am, Monday, June 29, 2015

One of the nation’s best bass fisheries is in the backyard of Midland anglers.

Even though it’s best known for another species.

The rankings shift from year to year, but Michigan consistently places lakes on the Bass Anglers Sportsmen Society (BASS) 100 Best Bass Lakes in America. Among eight Michigan waters filling six spots this year is Saginaw Bay.

Making the list for the first time this year, at number 69, BASS said the huge Bay “may be the sleeper of the state’s many incredible fisheries,” with smallmouth bass, overlooked in the rush for walleyes, growing big and abundant.

It doesn’t hurt, as local fisheries biologists have pointed out, that clearer Bay waters favor smallies, and they love the invasive alien round gobies that have made the big lobe of Lake Huron their home.

BASS creates its annual list by asking each state’s fisheries agency to name its bassiest waters. The BASS Facebook page’s 630,000 fans are polled, and then the BASS Council, a 3,500-member panel of bass devotees, helps place the lakes in order. Finally, a 15-member, blue-ribbon panel from the fishing industry puts its finishing touches on the honor roll.

This year’s top ranking went to Toledo Bend Reservoir, which straddles the Texas/Louisiana border. How good is it? Between May of last year and April of this year, said Bassmaster Magazine Editor James Hall, anglers there registered 79 bass over 10 pounds each. It has never ranked lower than 15th place.

In second place this year was Sturgeon Lake on Wisconsin’s portion of Lake Michigan. Top-ranked last year, it wasn’t on the list at all in 2012 or 2013.

Michigan’s share of Lake St. Clair, rated number one in 2013, rebounded to third this year after last year’s #16 ranking. Its smallmouth fishing had fallen off a bit, BASS said, maybe because of added pressure after the spotlight the year before. But the group said smallmouth fishing seems on pace again this year, with largemouth bass coming on strong, too.

Bassmaster Senior Writer Louie Stout wrote of Lake St. Clair, “There is no doubt this is the best lake in Michigan right now. And this is saying a lot, because there are some awesome lakes in this state.”

In northwest Lower Michigan, Lake Michigan’s Grand Traverse Bay stayed high on the list, 17th this year compared to ninth last year. BASS said the double-lobed Bay may hold the Great Lakes’ biggest smallmouths, fish of seven pounds and better.

Not far away, Lake Charlevoix rose to 28th from last year’s 82nd ranking. It was ranked 40th in 2013. Michigan bass pro Kevin VanDam called it “one of the finest smallmouth fisheries in the country.”

Also in northern Lower Michigan, Burt and Mullet lakes rose one spot to 45th this year, also on the bronze backs of their smallmouth bass.

In the Upper Peninsula, Big and Little Bays de Noc on Lake Michigan made their first appearances on the list at number 58. Better known for walleyes, they produce great bass, too, the group said, 90 percent of them smallmouths of up to six pounds.